A Meeting Outside of Time
by Winged Knight
Summary: Homura has walked down the lonely roads outside of time again and again on her quest, but what if just once she didn't need to walk alone? Just a short, shoddy thing I wrote up after watching episode 10. I hope it entertains.


A Meeting Outside of Time

She had failed.

Once again she had failed to save the one most precious to her. Had failed to keep her only, dearest friend from making the choice that damned her. Once again she steeled her soul and set back the sands of time, walking back to brighter days that became dark all too quickly.

Once more Homura Akemi began her mission. She wasn't sure how many times she had done this. Everything had become a blur. It could have been less than ten or more than a thousand, but it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was her goal, to save the innocent one she had left to die and worse so many times before.

This trip always disorientated her, especially near the beginning and end. While she walked the paths outside of time it seemed like she spent weeks going toward her destination, yet when she awoke in her bed it was as if barely an instant had passed.

She hated it, being left alone to stew in her failure as she strode back toward the beginning. She was worn ragged, bruised and slashed. Walpurgis Night had overpowered her, and Madoka… Madoka had saved her. She always saved her, but she could never do the same.

The tears ran down easily, streaking through the blood and grime that had accumulated on her face. Though her body was like iron, honed from experience and agony, her heart was like glass. No matter how she tried she couldn't overcome that wrenching feeling in her chest. The feeling of despair held in check only buy sheer force of will, despair for the one she wanted so desperately to save from her cruel fate. So she cried, walking alone on the paths outside of time.

Only she was not alone. Homura saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head and looked. There, walking on the next path over, was someone else. There was another who strode across her lonely road alongside her.

He noticed her too, stopping his travel to look at her. He was a tall man, and handsome, she supposed. His features were sharp, his skin dark and his hair pale. He wore armor across his chest, and a strange red shirt over it. It only seemed to cover his shoulders and arms. Something similar appeared tucked into his belt, which he rested a hand on as he observed her with a cocky smile. But all that was superficial. What caught her attention were two things. One was the glowing power she saw locked in his chest, a never ending expanse of space held within him. But what really held her were his eyes. Grey eyes that held so much pain. Had lived so long and went through so much toward an ever distant goal. She knew those eyes.

She saw them every time she looked in a mirror.

"This is surprising," he said, his voice deep and strong. "I didn't expect to see someone else out here." He looked at her more closely. "You're not a Heroic Spirit."

"And you are not Puella Magi," she said back, taking only a moment to wipe away her tears. The man noticed, but did not comment, something for which she was grateful. It was an odd feeling, meeting someone who understood even a little how she felt.

She reached out with one hand to him, but was stopped halfway. She met a barrier, as invisible as air but as strong as stone. He reached as well, his own hand resting flat against the wall between them.

"So we can speak, but cannot touch," she whispered. "How strange. To be this close to another person, in this space, but so far."

The man chuckled. "Not so strange, is it? After all, you've the look of one who's been close yet far from someone for a very long time."

Homura pulled her hand back and glared at him, but it died swiftly. Despite his tone his eyes were nothing by sympathetic. He, too, had gone through pain. He understood what it meant to be close to a person, and yet unable to truly embrace.

"I'm sorry," he said. "That was uncouth of me."

She nodded, and they were silent for a bit. They looked at each other, observing the oddity of companionship in this space each had traveled so many times before. It was strange, but it was also comforting having another there in this lonely place.

"So what are you?" she asked after a short while, or perhaps much longer. It was hard to tell here. "A Heroic Sprit, like you said I was not?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm just an old fool who chased an impossible dream and was punished for his stupidity. I tried to save everyone, but that's not something one man can do on his own. I'm just a failure of a magus who thought he could shoulder the world, but in the end was destroyed by it."

Homura quirked an eyebrow and tilted her head to look at him from another angle. His words reminded her a little of another. "A failure, you say? How can that be?" She motioned to his chest, toward the shining power she saw within him. "Don't you carry within yourself an entire world? That hardly seems like failure to me."

He put his hands to his chest, as if grasping the glowing world that existed within him. He held it there before pushing it forward, showing it to her. She saw an endless field of swords set within a sun that was always setting yet never did. Gears turned within, and smoke filled the air. It was the world of a builder, and a destroyer. It was the world of one who had created much and yet killed so much more.

And it was then Homura knew the source of his pain. Having seen this she could not help but agree with him. He was a failure, for his strength had also brought him his despair.

"It is when it's the only thing you have left," he said quietly. "All I am is the bone of my sword."

She nodded. "I see. What will you do then?"

"Push on, and hope. I might have a chance left, one that I'm going toward." He put his world back within himself, setting it to rest inside of his soul. "But it probably won't work."

"And yet you'll try anyway?"

He smiled at her, a real one this time instead of his usual smirk. It made him look younger. "What else can I do?"

"I… I know that feeling," she said softly, one hand going over her shield. "I am always walking, always trying to save one person from her fate. She is so kind, and yet she receives nothing for it but pain. She saved me… I can't just leave her…"

He nodded, telling without words that she didn't need to say anything more. He looking first at her shield and then at her eyes. He saw within her, just like she had seen within him. Despite the impassible wall between them, they had no barriers to each other. Each knew what the other desired. All they wanted was an end to their torment.

Such as simple statement, but it was so hard to make real. But there was comfort in being near someone who knew, really knew, what that meant. Loneliness was a deceptive, evil creature. You never knew how deeply its talons were in your heart until it was gone.

"I'm Shirou," he said softly. "I don't know how long our paths will be this close, but I'll walk with you for as long as it goes."

"I'm Homura," she said just as quietly as they walked down the roads of time. She looked over to him, and for a brief moment the misery of her existence faded just the slightest bit. She wasn't alone.

"Thank you, Shirou."

"Thank you, Homura."

And so two people walked outside of time, toward destinies filled with fire and pain. But for now they didn't have to walk by themselves, could take comfort that another was there. And sometimes that's all you need.

Sometimes that was enough.


End file.
